Munster, IN — On a day when many Americans reflected in sorrow on lives lost, one group took a day to celebrate.
Music and singing could be heard for blocks along Ridge Road on Monday as the Chabad Lubavitch of Northwest Indiana welcomed its new Torah scroll. The ceremony began with a procession from Grove Park to the Chabad house on Ridge Road in Munster.
Perhaps the most noticeable aspect of the festivities was the spirit behind the smiling faces of participants young and old. Rabbi Eliezer Zalmanov said the Torah is significant not only as the first the Chabad owns, but also for the community the Chabad house represents.
The scroll that binds them
Families line room to kiss Torah as it arrives at Chabad house
Munster, IN — On a day when many Americans reflected in sorrow on lives lost, one group took a day to celebrate.
Music and singing could be heard for blocks along Ridge Road on Monday as the Chabad Lubavitch of Northwest Indiana welcomed its new Torah scroll. The ceremony began with a procession from Grove Park to the Chabad house on Ridge Road in Munster.
Perhaps the most noticeable aspect of the festivities was the spirit behind the smiling faces of participants young and old. Rabbi Eliezer Zalmanov said the Torah is significant not only as the first the Chabad owns, but also for the community the Chabad house represents.
“The Torah represents Jewish continuity,” Zalmanov said. “It has kept us together and stresses that the Jewish people are eternal.”
Zalmanov said the Torah demonstrates that eternal quality in the way it is constructed. In a meticulous process dating back to the dawn of Judaism, each Torah is handmade and copied by a certified scribe. The scribe first prepares parchment taken from a kosher animal (such as a deer or goat) by soaking the skin in lime water for nine days. He then stretches the skin over a frame to remove remaining hair.
“A Torah can last forever if it is kept well,” Zalmanov said.
The scribe also makes the quills and ink used to write the Torah. The scribe then writes the text, a challenging task. While Hebrew is read and written from right to left, the scribe will painstakingly write each individual letter of the text from left to right. It will take the scribe almost a year to complete almost a quarter of a million Hebrew letters. Once the text is complete, the scribe and a colleague will check each page three times to make sure there are no errors.
The document is not actually considered a Torah until the parchment is sewn onto wooden poles. The parchment is sewn to the poles with thread made from the sinew of a kosher animal.
“It is customary that the community witness the Torah being finished,” Zalmanov said.
The Chabad has been waiting for its Torah for two and a half years, Zalmanov said. The Chabad house has been using a borrowed Torah from the congregation of Chicago. The new Torah was used in Israel for 30 years before it was restored, refurbished and donated to the Chabad of Northwest Indiana. Zalmanov said he was unsure about the exact age of the scroll.
The zeal of the participants made the congregation’s anticipation of the scroll apparent. Members welcomed the new scroll in the synagogue of the Chabad house with prayer, song and dance. Families spanning three generations lined the room to kiss the Torah as it passed on its way into the ark, where the scrolls are traditionally stored. Members were offered a piece of the scroll’s mantle to keep for good luck.
Rabbi Zalmanov said he hoped people would take away a sense of community from the ceremony.
“I hope that everyone comes together for this celebration and a project they can relate to,” Zalmanov said. “By coming together, everyone has a part in it.”